The Spiderdemon, also known as the Spider Mastermind, as named in Doom II's and Depths of Doom Trilogy's manual, is the final boss of Doom, and appears again in the final episode of The Ultimate Doom, Thy Flesh Consumed. The PlayStation version of Doom in turn features two Spiderdemons as the bosses of its final level, Redemption Denied. The Spiderdemon has 3000 hit points and is one of the toughest creatures in the game. The Spiderdemon appears as a huge brain with facial features on it, mounted atop a cybernetic chassis with four mechanical legs and a chaingun, making it similar to a spider at first glance.

The Doom II game booklet humorously presents the Spiderdemon as the mother of the Arachnotrons: You guess the Arachnotrons had to come from somewhere. Hi, mom. She doesn't have a plasma gun, so thank heaven for small favors. Instead, she has a super-chaingun. Crap. It has since been confirmed that this comment is comic relief, and the genderless Spider Mastermind is not actually the biological mother of the Arachnotrons.

The Spiderdemon is not mentioned in the Doom game booklet, presumably to avoid a spoiler. Perhaps as a result of this, the game booklet for the Depths of Doom Trilogy erroneously states that it appears in Doom II only.

Contents 1 Combat characteristics 2 Tactical analysis 2.1 General tactics 3 Notes 4 Data 5 Appearance statistics 6 See also

Combat characteristicsEdit

A Spiderdemon emits a demonic roar which starts low-pitched but progressively "grows" in a crescendo to a high-pitched tone once activated. The huge chaingun on the Spiderdemon's chassis fires three bullets with every shot, much like the shotgun guy's shotgun, but at a rapid rate of 467 shots per minute. When a Spiderdemon begins firing, it will not stop until its target moves out of view or dies, or if it is stunned (where it will walk a bit immediately after the pain state) or killed. Similar behavior can be observed in the nazi soldier, heavy weapon dude and the arachnotron.

Spiderdemons, like cyberdemons, are immune to all blast damage, taking only direct hit damage from hits. This means a greater number of rockets are required to kill them than might be expected.

When killed, the Spiderdemon's mechanical body shuts down (in a forcible way) and collapses. A soft, whirring-down sound is heard (similar to the mechanical rotor of an electric drill stopping spinning) as the body falls to the ground, engulfed in flames. Its brain is splattered on impact (at this moment, similarly to the Cyberdemon), the monster then emits an animalistic grunt that is readily cut out by an explosion, and all that remains are its shattered robotic legs and dismembered facial features in a huge pool of blood.

Tactical analysisEdit

General tacticsEdit

When fighting a Spiderdemon, it is essential to keep one's distance as much as possible; even at medium and long range, the monster's attack is devastating. Using the more powerful weapons is recommended against it, although since the Spiderdemon has a low pain chance, rapid-fire weapons will not completely prevent it from attacking. Using melee attacks against it is almost always an exercise in suicide, as the bullets will push the player backwards, unable to make contact with the Spider Mastermind. The exception is the rare cases where the Spiderdemon is pinned by another attacker. In E3M8: Dis, it is possible to stand up on the ledge above ground level and stay at great distance from the monster. At this range, the Spiderdemon's attack will not aim toward the player, and therefore never hit its target. Also, the Spiderdemon is large and tall enough that, even while standing on the ledge, projectile attacks will reach it.

However, due to its large size, it will soak in most if not all BFG rays from a point blank shot, dying in only 1 or 2 hits. A skilled player can therefore kill it easily by running up to it and shooting it twice with the BFG before it can kill the player. Utilizing monster infighting can be effective when battling a Spiderdemon. If one does not have the BFG, the rocket launcher or the plasma gun are recommended.

NotesEdit

• In the original Doom game, this monster is called just "Spiderdemon". However in Doom II cast sequence it has the less generic name "The Spider Mastermind".
• Despite being the final boss, several attributes of the Spiderdemon are inferior to the Cyberdemon, such as hit points, speed or pain chance. Since they have different types of weapons, there is no objective way to tell which one is more powerful. However it can be argued that during the release of the game, the hitscan attack of the Spiderdemon was too dangerous for players at the time.
• While the Spiderdemon is considered more threatening and story-critical in the original Doom game, in Doom II the Cyberdemon is given "higher billing" as the greater monster. The Spiderdemon is the last boss in Doom as well as in The Ultimate Doom's extra episode, Thy Flesh Consumed, and is credited with controlling the invasion of the Phobos and Deimos bases. However, in Doom II the Cyberdemon is the last monster fought in MAP29 before the actual final boss fight in MAP30, in addition to the Spider Mastermind appearing before the Cyberdemon in the endgame cast sequence.
  • This is commonly interpreted to mean the Spiderdemon is the higher-ranking tactical commander, while the Cyberdemon is the more powerful warrior.
• Upon death the Spiderdemon collapses into a heap, with an accompanying series of explosions. As it collapses, frame-by-frame analysis shows that a piece of metal from its cybernetic portion pierces its forehead from within. Its mouth, complete with pointed teeth still intact, is visible on its otherwise ruined corpse. Some have even speculated that the Spiderdemon flips the player off during the death sequence, though that was most likely an accident on creating the graphics.
• The Spiderdemon, along with the Demon, Mancubus, and Cyberdemon are the only monsters whose dying sound clips includes noise other than the monsters' vocals; in this case, there are two loud explosions.
• The Spiderdemon, Arachnotron, and Cyberdemon are the only monsters that constantly make sound when they walk.
• Near the beginning of Doom II MAP20, Gotcha!, the player is given the opportunity to lure the Spiderdemon and the Cyberdemon into fighting each other via monster infighting. Unless a third party intervenes, the Cyberdemon usually wins. It may be convenient to allow the Cyberdemon to win since, while its attack does more potential damage, it is possible to dodge.
• The term 'Spiderdemon' is actually a misnomer; Despite being called a "spider" the monster has only six visible limbs: two arms and four mechanical legs. Incidentally, the Doom novels inconsistently describe four mechanical legs at one point and six mechanical legs at another, though the novels themselves contain several continuity errors.^{[citation needed]}
• The sprites are different from the original latex and metal model, as seen here. The model has a 3-barrelled chaingun implanted right below the mouth, while the game sprites have a 6-barrelled chaingun implanted into the base.
• MAP28: The Spirit World in Doom II is the only level designed by id Software that includes more than one Spiderdemon at the same time. Two appear near a group of Arachnotrons, on the "Hurt me Plenty", "Ultra-Violence", and "Nightmare!" skill levels.
• The Spiderdemon is also one of the rarest monsters in the game, appearing in only a few select levels.
• The Spiderdemon's "super-chaingun" actually makes the same sound as the shotgun, just played really fast repeatedly.
• The PlayStation and Saturn ports' version of the Spiderdemon only contains one sound clip, used for both an alert sound and a dying sound. In contrast with almost all the other monsters (save for the revenant) this sound is noticeably cheap and thrown in almost as an afterthought.
• As with all hitscan attack monsters, it is possible for two Spiderdemons to infight each other. The only instance where this can happen in the official commercial levels is MAP28 of Doom II. This also occurs in the PlayStation/Saturn ports' final level, Redemption Denied.
• In a ZDoom-based source port, if a player is killed by a Spiderdemon (monster is credited with delivering the blow that reduces player's health to 0%), an obituary message is displayed at the top of the screen: "[player name] stood in awe of the Spider Mastermind."

DataEdit

Attributes ID # 7 (decimal), 7 (hex) Hit points 3000 Speed 12 map units per frame (140.0 map units per second) Width 256 Height 100 Reaction time 8 Pain chance 40 (15.63%) Pain time 6 tics Mass 1000 Bits 4194310 Bits list 1: Obstacle 2: Shootable 22: Affects Kill %

Sprites & sounds Sprite name SPID Alert sound DSSPISIT Chase sound DSMETAL Action sound DSDMACT Pain sound DSDMPAIN Death sound DSSPIDTH

Ranged attack Type Hitscan Damage 3-15 (per pellet) 9-45 (total) Shots per minute 466.7 Sprite name PUFF (impact, miss) BLUD (impact, hit) Sound DSSHOTGN

Shots needed to kill1,2	Mean	Standard deviation	Min	Max
Player (100% health, no armor)	12.29	2.16	9	19
Player (100% health, security armor)	17.86	2.79	13	26
Player (200% health, combat armor)	44.18	6.03	37	59
Barrel	2.93	0.83	2	6
Trooper	2.93	0.83	2	6
Sergeant	3.91	1.04	2	7
Wolfenstein SS	6.37	1.39	4	11
Imp	7.43	1.53	5	13
Chaingunner	8.80	1.74	5	15
Lost soul	12.29	2.16	9	19
Commander Keen	12.29	2.16	9	19
Demon	17.86	2.79	13	26
Spectre	17.86	2.79	13	26
Boss brain3	29.78	4.39	25	42
Revenant	35.44	5.22	30	50
Cacodemon	47.41	6.88	40	64
Pain elemental	47.41	6.88	40	64
Hell knight	58.95	8.61	50	82
Arachnotron	58.95	8.61	50	82
Mancubus	70.57	10.22	60	96
Arch-vile	82.52	12.01	70	114
Baron of Hell	117.61	17.02	100	159
Spiderdemon	351.57	51.06	303	473
Cyberdemon	468.91	68.19	405	631

1. This table assumes that all calls to P_Random for damage, pain chance, blood splats, and bullet dispersal are consecutive. In real play, this is never the case: counterattacks and AI pathfinding must be handled, and of course the map may contain additional moving monsters and other randomized phenomena (such as flickering lights). Any resulting errors are probably toward the single-shot average, as they introduce noise into the correlation between the indices of "consecutive" calls.
2. The target must be close enough to compensate for the weapon's recoil.
3. Assumes that direct hits are possible, which does not occur in any stock map.

Appearance statisticsEdit

In classic Doom, the Spiderdemon is first encountered on these maps:

Game	ITYTD and HNTR	HMP	UV and NM
Ultimate Doom	E3M8: Dis	E3M8: Dis	E3M8: Dis
Doom II	MAP20: Gotcha!	MAP20: Gotcha!	MAP06: The Crusher
TNT: Evilution	MAP20: Central Processing1	MAP20: Central Processing	MAP14: Steel Works
Plutonia	MAP05: Ghost Town	MAP05: Ghost Town	MAP05: Ghost Town

The IWADs contain the following numbers of Spiderdemons:

Game	ITYTD and HNTR	HMP	UV and NM
Ultimate Doom	2	2	2
Doom II	2	4	5
TNT: Evilution	2	1	3
Plutonia	3	4	4

1. May be encountered earlier if the super secret level is played.

See alsoEdit

• Models

Monsters from Doom and Doom II
Arachnotron | Arch-Vile | Baron of Hell | Cacodemon | Commander Keen | Cyberdemon | Demon | Heavy Weapon Dude | Hell Knight | Imp | Lost Soul | Mancubus | Pain Elemental | Revenant | Shotgun Guy | Spectre | Spider Mastermind | Zombieman | Wolfenstein SS | Final Boss

Monsters from the Sony PlayStation version of Doom
Arachnotron | Baron of Hell | Cacodemon | Cyberdemon | Demon | Heavy Weapon Dude | Hell Knight | Imp | Lost Soul | Mancubus | Nightmare Spectre | Pain Elemental | Revenant | Shotgun Guy | Spectre | Spider Mastermind | Zombieman